Quick drive back…

NOTE: For Facebook users, please: http://www.haonavy.com/fledglingphotographer

The May 20 drive back to Addis Ababa for our flight out of the country was fairly uneventful… and to prevent a post from being: “…and then we went here” (insert photo) “…and then we went there…” (another photo) “…and then we got on another plane…” (photo)…

I’m just gonna post a few favorites from the day. Maybe little descriptions… but not really all that much.

For instance, I like this:

I love black and white photos. I’m not colorblind, but I definitely “see” a substantial amount of photos in black and white at the moment of capture. This one? 100%. This must be in black and white.

This one, at a fishing market near the lake in Awasa, Ethiopia? It really could be in color – their shirts are kind of a fine color… but given the choice, it needs black and white. The gesture of the men arguing over something and their firm grip, echoed by the firm lines high in the composition…

…broken up by the dark pattern of the men’s heads in the background.

Wow, I sound like an art-donkey. Sorry… I’ll stop.

Anyways…

And by the way, other than the images you see here, I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the EXTRA images from most of these days. A couple more per day is available – some are behind-the-scenes stuff, but most are images that simply don’t fit into the story I tell on the blog.

They’re on my Flickr account – the location where I host all the images you see here – you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/haonavy/

So, that’s just a few images on our last day in Ethiopia…

…OR WAS IT!?

We arrived at the Bole International Airport… and 7 hours of waiting later, we learned our flight was canceled because the plane broke and they didn’t have the part or the specialist to fix it.

As the story goes, a couple of us were spending our wait in a restaurant and began talking to this Ethiopian guy who studied in Paris and had a wife in London and was a import/exporter of leather and coffee. COFFEE, of all things… considering that’s what this whole sojourn is based around.

Anyways, he found us as my group and I were waiting in the eternally-long line to find our what hotel Emirates Airlines would be putting us up in for the night…

Well, to make a long story short, somehow this guy got us at the front of the line – even ahead of the flight crew! – and we were whisked away in the small courtesy van to the Addis Ababa Hilton. Where – since we were at the front of the line – my friends and I got processed first…

…and – as every hotel that’s about to be paid by an inordinately-wealthy airlines to house 350 slightly-irate passengers should – they filled the best rooms first.

Yes, my lovely readers… my friends and I stayed in Room 1100: The Presidential Suite.

The top room at one of the top hotels at the top of one of the highest towers in Ethiopia.

Nevertheless, this grand adventure would be short-lived…

…but for that, stay tuned.
-Noah D.